Putting compassion at the heart of healthcare
Dr Martin Scurr’s mission has always been simple: deliver outstanding medicine while fostering deep, genuine relationships with those in his care: “What I enjoy most are the relationships with the patients and being able to apply some magic.”
It’s an approach quite at odds with Doc Martin, the curt doctor of Portwenn based on the highs and lows of Dr Scurr’s career. “He was the inverse of me… He didn’t bother about making people feel comfortable. I’m the opposite of that.”
For Dr Scurr, being a GP is less about instructing and more about building a partnership. Walking beside patients on what he calls the “rocky road” of their health journey, acting as their advocate and sometimes just someone to listen.
But in the 40 years since Dr Scurr started in general practice, the world of healthcare has changed dramatically. With the move from handwritten notes and house calls to digital records and results in an instant, how do you safeguard the warmth, trust and continuity that has always defined great patient care in primary care?
The challenge: Bridging the old and the new
Dr Scurr’s career began in a different era, one before medical imaging. When the heartbeat of a baby was a mystery until birth. “When I was first a GP, we didn't even have ultrasound scanning… in the eighties, we got CT scanning,” he recalls. Each new piece of technology brought fresh possibilities, but also new complexities.
Today, patients move between clinics, hospitals and pharmacies with unprecedented ease, and the NHS model of my-patient-my-responsibility is fading.
“NHS GPs have let go of the old tradition of ‘That's my patient, don't touch him’,” Dr Scurr observes. Technology promised speed and convenience, but too often the human connection was getting lost in translation, with fragmented records and clunky software getting in the way of care.
The insight: Technology as a tool, not a barrier
Dr Scurr never saw innovation as the enemy.
Instead, he saw an opportunity to bring even more humanity to his work, if wielded wisely. For him, the real risk wasn’t the tech itself but losing sight of the patient in the process.
“Many patients say to me, ‘My doctor is always looking at the screen.’ As a medical practitioner, you’re their advocate; you’re with them on that path. And certainly in my life, I go out of my way to put screens aside.”
For Dr Scurr, a GP’s true power lies in being “warm and welcoming and kind and gentle,” blending knowledge with connection.
The arrival of digital tools, like AI-scribed consultations, presented a turning point, “because you don't have to look at the screen when you're with a patient, you've got that eye to eye [contact], and that is so much more valuable than it used to be.”
The solution: Seamless, human-centred digital practice
Determined to amplify patient care, not diminish it, Dr Scurr sought out tech that worked with him, not against him.
The turning point came when he discovered Semble, which came highly recommended by colleagues. Previous systems had been “so awful, so difficult and so clunky,” he admits, but Semble provided something different: truly seamless integration and, crucially, the freedom to focus on what has always matters to him the most: his patients.
Technology in this case isn’t a barrier, but a bridge, allowing Dr Scurr to connect more deeply, maintain warmth and deliver the attentive care that defines his approach.
Now, whether he’s working from King Edward VII’s, or consulting on the go, Dr Scurr’s workflow is uninterrupted. “If I order a lab test in any one of those, it’s always copied through to my own laptop, so I can sit in the evening or on the train… I get that result. I can email the patient and say, I’ve seen your blood tests.”
Technology no longer meant bureaucracy or disconnection. Instead, it meant empowered, immediate communication and a new level of continuity: patients receiving results the same day, prescriptions orchestrated in moments and a GP who could always stay in the loop, no matter where work took him.
The result: Transforming care without losing trust
With the right digital tools, Dr Scurr has reimagined what continuity of care can look like in today’s world. Patients no longer wait weeks for results to trickle through; with the right system, that gap closes.
Dr Scurr’s practice is proof that you can have the best of both worlds. Technology enables speed, flexibility, and access – but never at the cost of the personal touch.
“Semble, for me, was a great breakthrough… a success, much appreciated, and we all use it at King Edward’s.”
Dr Martin Scurr’s journey illustrates the future of medicine: one where innovation and empathy go hand in hand. The result is a practice that’s faster, smarter, and above all, more human.
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